Eugene Donnelly outpsyched his rival Gareth MacHale on the final stage of the Ulster Rally, run close to Donnelly’s home. The lead which had usually been in MacHale’s favour but seldom by more than five seconds or so suddenly swung to Donnelly after MacHale overshot a junction at lost a quarter minute. “I just left my braking too late”, is all MacHale could say at the end. Eugene, known as the ‘Genie’, also had his luck. After the final stage he had a puncture, but it was on the road section to the finish. The British championship section of the rally was also tight all the way, with an initial battle between the championship contenders Keith Cronin and Mark Higgins before Cronin crashed, and then Gwyndaf Evans started chasing Higgins, a battle which Higgins finally won by 8.3 seconds. Cronin also had his luck. British Championship points rules allow contenders to drop one score, so it seemed his accident really didn’t matter, so long as he has a good run on the final event in the series.

The rally began with a fierce three way Irish championship World Rally Car battle between the Impreza of Derek McGarrity, the Fabia of Donnelly and the Focus of MacHale, but McGarrity fell back with damper problems and settled for third place. Overnight rain made conditions tricky for competitors. A first stage casualty was Dutch JWRC driver Kevin Abbring, entered as the event was part of the European Clio challenge, a category which eventually was won by Belgian driver Kris Princen. Pirelli sponsored driver Darren Gass crashed his Subaru and caused the stage to be stopped, and the Finnish driver Matti Rantanen, also at the wheel of a Clio, crashed as well.

The event produced the first British national rally title of the season. Martin McCormack won the championship’s Junior title at the wheel of a Citroen C2 R2 Max. The overall awards in both the Irish Tarmac Championship and the British rally championship will now be decided on the final rounds, the former at the Cork 20 Rally, the latter at the Trackrod Rally in Yorkshire. On both these series competitors score a 50% points bonus on the final round. On the BRC, the battle between Cronin and Higgins could hardly be more clear, whoever beats the other takes the title. For Higgins there is a worry that age is creeping up. It was reported this was the first rally where he wore spectacles ...

3mmm
photo 1: Donnelly - Skoda Fabia WRC
photo 2: Higgins - Subaru Impreza

Final classification
1 Donnelly/Toner      Skoda Fabia WRC                  1h48m09.2s
2 MacHale/Murphy      Ford Focus WRC                   1h48m23.3s
3 McGarrity/McKee     Subaru Impreza WRC               1h50m21.4s
4 Higgins/Thomas      Subaru Impreza Group N           1h53m01.6s
5 Evans/Patterson     Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X Group N  1h53m10.5s
6 Fisher/Kennedy      Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX Group N 1h55m53.1s